[Media-watch] "I would kill Geoff Hoon" - The Guardian - 11/11/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1348298,00.html

 A father's anger: 'I would kill Geoff Hoon'

Audrey Gillan
Thursday November 11, 2004
The Guardian
The father of two Black Watch soldiers serving at Camp Dogwood in Iraq 
threatened to kill the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, yesterday because he 
was a "two-faced lying git".
James Buchanan, whose sons Gary, 27, and Craig, 24, both corporals, were due 
to return home but then redeployed north to reinforce the American assault 
on Falluja, said: "This man has got me so angry. If I see him in the street 
I would kill him. I would kill that man. I would cut his throat."

The former RAF warrant officer's outburst came at the launch of Families 
Against the War, a group of families who will campaign for British troops to 
be pulled out of Iraq. They include parents of sons who were killed in Iraq 
as well as parents of those currently serving.

The launch, on the eve of Armistice day, coincided with an announcement from 
the Ministry of Defence that two more soldiers had been injured at or near 
Camp Dogwood, the Black Watch base.

The first, a helicopter pilot with the Army Air Corps, was seriously injured 
when shot at through the windscreen of his aircraft. His co-pilot took 
control of the Lynx and flew it back to the camp. The pilot was flown to an 
American hospital in Baghdad. The second soldier was injured in a mortar 
attack on the helicopter pad inside the camp.

After yesterday's campaign launch, the families walked the short distance to 
Downing Street to lay a wreath of poppies in remembrance of those killed in 
Iraq, as well as photographs of their dead sons and a letter to Tony Blair.



Reg Keys, father of Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, one of six Royal Military 
Policemen killed in Iraq last year, Rose Gentle, mother of Fusilier Gordon 
Gentle, killed this year, and Theresa Evans, mother of Lance Bombardier 
Llewellyn Evans, the first British military fatality during the war last 
year, held each other as they stood in front of the door to No 10.

Mrs Evans had earlier broken down at the press conference when Mr Keys told 
how her son had died in a helicopter crash which was witnessed by her other 
son.

She wept as Mr Keys told how she had held two funerals for her son - one for 
his body and another for further body parts sent to her from America. She 
wept again when the families passed the Cenotaph on Whitehall which 
remembers the country's war dead.

In their letter to the prime minister, the families said: "When enlisting, 
service men and women sign an oath of allegiance to Her Majesty's 
government.

"All these people ask in return is that their government act in an 
honourable, truthful and honest manner and only deploy troops into the 
theatre of war to risk their lives when absolutely necessary, when all 
avenues of diplomacy have been exhausted.

"To deploy troops based on deceit of WMD is totally morally unacceptable. 
The blame lies firmly at your doorstep. This was a contrived war, a war of 
option not of necessity."

The laying of the wreath at Downing Street was a contentious issue, with the 
families initially being told that they wouldn't be able to do so.

Officials finally relented and after observing a minute's silence on the No 
10 doorstep, Mr Keys and Mrs Gentle knocked on the door and went inside for 
just under a minute.

Their earlier request to meet Mr Blair was dismissed. The families then went 
to a private meeting with 40 cross-party MPs before taking part in an 
anti-war demonstration in Parliament Square.

During his outburst, Mr Buchanan explained that none of the families 
involved with the group were anti-military and that fighting was his sons' 
job. He added, however, that his sons had not signed up to fight for the 
Americans or for lies.

He said that Mr Hoon had lied to the Black Watch families for three weeks 
over what was happening to the soldiers.

Mr Buchanan's son Craig, a Warrior driver, had been close friends with 
Private Piti Tukutukuwaqa, a Fijian member of the Black Watch who was killed 
in a suicide bomb attack on Monday. His best man had been killed earlier in 
the conflict.

Four Black Watch soldiers have been killed in hostile action since the 
deployment to Camp Dogwood.

A number of others have been injured, some seriously, with one soldier 
losing both legs.